Category: Food Industry

OSI Group is an industry-leading food manufacturer. The company has been in business for over 100 years and continues to deliver the excellence that it was noted for from the very beginning. OSI Group has its roots in the Chicago area. It began as a family-owned organization that was founded by a German immigrant named Otto Kolschowsky. Otto called his company Otto and Sons. They supplied meat to local food businesses. Over the years Otto and Son gained notoriety and became a trusted provider of product.

In the 1950’s Otto and Sons was discovered by McDonald’s Corporation CEO Ray Kroc. Ray Kroc was moving his enterprise into the Illinois area and needed a meat supplier. He chose Otto and Sons to be one of several hundred suppliers for his nationwide organization. Otto and Sons stepped up to the challenge and immediately set themselves apart from its contemporaries in the industry. Before long Ray Kroc selected Otto and Sons to be the number one supplier of meat to his organization.

Otto and Sons built a state-of-the-art meat processing plant in order to accommodate the responsibilities of the McDonald’s contract. The facility featured several innovative touches such as the meat patty cutting machine and cryogenic freezing chambers. These were two innovations that catered to the specific needs of the McDonald’s Corporation. They saved the restaurant giant a tremendous amount of man hours. The cryogenic freezing chambers also allowed Otto and Sons to store large amounts of product to supply the massive needs of McDonald’s.

Otto and Sons became known as OSI Group by the 1960’s. The company began making international business transactions outside of its relationship with McDonald’s. It currently has working relationships with other food franchises such as Papa John’s Pizza, Pizza Hut, Starbucks and Subway. There are 65 facilities operating in 17 countries around the world. OSI Group was ranked as the 58th largest privately owned company in the world by Forbes Magazine.

OSI Industries is a leading worldwide food provider which started in 1909 as a neighborhood butcher. It has beaten all the odds to emerge among the largest world food companies owing to their innovation strategies, urge to expand and creating world-class food solutions. OSI Industries has employed over 20000 people in their 65 facilities across 17 countries.

How did it start? Well, in 1909, it was started as a butcher by a German Immigrant and it operated by the name Otto & Sons. Their services were outstanding and in 1955, McDonald’s restaurant contracted Otto & Sons to supply them meat. It gained popularity and expanded to West Chicago where they opened a plant, still operating under the name Otto & Sons. They changed their name to OSI Industries in 1975 and by the end of the 1970s, they had opened plants in Germany and Utah as they continued to service McDonalds’ business.

The food provider continued growing bigger as it opened more facilities in Brazil, Spain, Taiwan as well as Austria in the 1980s. Well, their journey has been a magnificent one because in every decade, afterwards, they had expanded to more countries, employed more people, acquired sophisticated facilities and diversified their products and services. Currently, they deal with beef, pork, fish, dough, poultry, vegetables as well as making snack food and condiments. Their food safety standards are so high that they won multiple awards on health and safety standards.

The company advocates the facilities and high quality products to strategic partnerships with clients. They rely on feedback from their customers to ascertain how exactly they are going to improve their products so that there is more customer satisfaction. This is important in understanding the customers’ choices and preferences and adjust accordingly.

Technology, if utilized well, is a cutting edge for any company that is trying to offer best services and products to their customers. They have embraced technology as well as partnering with producers on the ground to ensure food safety and quality.

Summing up, OSI Industries is a company that embraced technological innovations, best client relations and best growth strategies from the beginning to see it through growth from a mere butcher to a world-class food company.